Chapter 3: Nagato's Plan
A/N: Hi guys, no I haven't given up on the story. Between a mixture of writer's block, laziness, school, work and procrastination, I haven't been working on the story for a while. I've also decided to stop trying to set a date for the next upload of the chapter. My goal is still one chapter a month but there will be no promises. Otherwise than that, there's another A/N at the bottom of the chapter without further ado, I present Chapter 3 of Resurrection of Uzumaki.
"A toad?" Kushina was confused at what Nagato said, how could the story of the 'Second Sage of Six Paths' his story began with a toad. "Say again Nagato, what do you mean a toad?"
Nagato smirked at her questioning. "Simple it started with two humans and a large toad; they found me, Konan, and Yahiko in the rain when we were children." Seeing as Kushina only started to become interested in his story after his rant he thought he could fool with her for a while. "It was a hideous toad, the face was covered in warts and it had long white hair, not to mention the repulsive shade of green it was." A small scoff of a laugh escaped his lips, remembering the suits that Jiraiya had sewn for him and his friends.
"Green toad, with long white hair and warts; for some reason that sound familiar." Kushina stopped in her tracks and started to scratch her head. "You're talking about Jiraiya aren't you?" Seeing the man chuckle guessed she was right. "When did you meet Jiraiya, he's practically been in Konoha, his whole life."
"It was at the end of the Second Shinobi war, he just lost against Hanzō the Salamander with his teammates." Seeing as Kushina still didn't move from her spot he grabbed her arm and dragged her into a nearby food stall. "If we can't talk and walk we might as well as eat and talk."
Kushina was about to protest because she wanted to get back to Naruto as quickly as she could, then her stomach started to growl. "Dattebane, I guess you're right, I haven't eaten since my resurrection." With a sheepish grin she eagerly followed behind him into the stall, which happened to be a ramen stall her favorite, after her first bowl of Shoyu Ramen Kushina started the conversation back up. "How is that possible, even after the Sannin fought against Hanzō the war was still going on? They had responsibilities as a shinobi of Konoha."
"Kushina I think we both know that Jiraiya was not known for following orders." Another brief smile escaped his face. "Anyways, he quickly took to the role of protecting over us, he wanted us to be blind to the war that was going on around us. He didn't even start to teach us how to use ninjutsu until I killed a shinobi from Iwa."
"You killed a shinobi without being trained, how old were you?" Kushina was worried; a first kill was never a pleasant thing, especially for a civilian at least shinobi are taught on how to deal with them.
"I was seven, it was days after my birthday, I will always remember the look on his face. Things like that you just don't forget. The next day was our first lesson. These eyes of mine are the only reason I am alive right now, they awoke and saved me from certain death by the hands of that shinobi." Nagato signed and stared at his hands as if they were saturated with the blood of all the people he had killed. "The night of the killing Jiraiya sat outside of our shack with me, while the others were asleep he gave me my mission."
"Your mission?" Kushina had pushed aside the third bowl of ramen that was set next to her, what could Jiraiya have told a seven year old to become the man that she saw before her today.
"Yes, as I said I was outside of the shack that we called home pouring my eyes out under the rain of the ever present sky when Jiraiya asked me what happened. I said that I saw Yahiko get hurt and I blacked out, when I came to I realized that I killed a man. I was questioning myself and if there was anything I could have done to change the outcome, after all who am I to take a life. What he told me I will always remember, he said "No one would blame you" I thought how would that be possible; but he reminded me if I didn't do what I did Yahiko would have died right there. He also told be about the cycle of hatred that plagues the shinobi world and how hate only begets hate. He said that it was through this cycle of hatred that we learn to be kind to one and each other." Nagato stopped talking and began to sip his tea that had cooled off. "I think that is the day I first became Pain."
"Pain?" Kushina gasped at his proclamation of pain, like it was a persona to take on.
"Yes, Pain is who I am, and I am Pain. I told Jiraiya while we sat there that I never wanted to ever be afraid again, and I never wanted for Konan and Yahiko to be in pain again. I knew then that it would fall on me to take all their pain and make it become mine." Nagato felt a quick sting of actual pain against his right cheek, quickly he raised his hand and placed his hand against the stinging skin. He looked to Kushina whose hand was just as red as his cheek felt. "Wha…"
"That's pain, it's not a man. You can't take on your friends or even the world's pain. It's not possible." After the stinging in her hand subsided Kushina got up and enveloped Nagato in a hug. "And this…" She said talking about the hug. "Is love, this is how you fight pain; trust me. I as a jinchūriki know this." She let him go and grabbed his hand and they started to walk back down the path towards his home.
"Love, huh. I guess your right that is one way to fight pain." Nagato took the lead as he escorted Kushina the way back. "But love is not my path, Pain is. It was because of my resolve that Jiraiya started to train us the next day, and train he did. Regardless what many may say about the man he is a brilliant teacher, he trained all three of us in different styles. Yahiko learned basic Kenjutsu and Suiton, Katon, and Fūton. He taught Konan how to use her origami as a form of weapons, now she can do anything with her chakra enhanced paper. As for me, he took the time to teach me any and everything, we found that these eyes allowed me to learn and control all basic elements and I was skilled in any art that I tried. For three long years we were happy the four of us, then out of the blue he decided to leave." Nagato raised his hand and ran them through a set of seals, and the rain started to pour down on the city once again. "This rain." Nagato said as he raised his hand and let the drops hit it. "It's a jutsu, we found out that Hanzō had his sensor division continuously use it detects any and all life forms it hits; Yahiko hated this rain." Than Nagato raised his hands into the snake, seal and the rain stopped.
"Then why use it?" Nagato looked back at the woman with a startled look, it was as if he forgot she was there and his mind took him to another place. "Why Nagato, why use this rain if this Yahiko person hated it so much?" Kushina felt that she needed to repeat her question to the man who looked alarmed.
"Why, why not. Without the rain we would never be able to protect the village. After I killed Hanzō it took a week to go through all his belongings. Surprisingly, he wrote everything down -how he controlled the village, what deals he had in the shadows, even the last time he took a shit." Nagato had said the last part for kicks, but the look on Kushina's disgruntled face told him she didn't appreciate it. "It was as if he knew his time was coming to an end, and he was preparing for someone else to take over."
"Hanzō was a wise man, it's funny that he would name the Sannin after all he was the real sage." Kushina was walking side by side with Nagato watching children run around in the brief break from all of the rain. "Nagato do you see those children?" He nodded. "Then why not let them have this sun all the time, I'm sure you can find a different detection method; why not use a barrier like that Konoha uses."
"Because Kushina, this is not Konoha." Although Nagato's voice sounded solid it also seemed like it was aching for a different truth. "Where you once lived was in one of The Great Five as we call them. Those who live in any of those five villages live life on a different scale, the pain they know is nothing to the pain the rest of the world. What happened to our homeland is an everyday occurrence, war or not. Fūinjutsu is a rare commodity and a barrier such as the one your old village possessed is not one a small village like Ame is capable of." As they walked they passed by an alley in darkness. "Just look there." Nagato directed Kushina's eyes into the shadows of the alley, after staring into the shadows they started to construct into sheets of scrap metal. The sheets of metal looked like it was some type of shanty build for the homeless. "Right there, within the reach of those children is despair. Ame was in shambles before I took control, while it is better now, we are still poverty stricken."
"So that's what this is about." Nagato have been only giving her more questions as each time spoke to him. First he told her that he wanted to rebuild their clan, then there was that test she just took. She wasn't kidding when she felt that it was done to prepare for a war, and just a few moments ago she heard his story about pain. "You want to peace, right? Is that the reason why you keep the rain technique to remind you of what you want accomplished? But what's with the group?" Kushina sighed a long breath as she walked along side of Nagato, how come even this revelation brought more questions to her mind.
"Peace." The word sounded foreign coming from Nagato's mouth, as if he didn't understand it himself. "I suppose you can say that, yes peace - peace through fire is what I seek." He saw Kushina mouth the word fire silently as if she was asking him yet another question. "This world is in pain and there is nothing I can do to take all its suffering as you said earlier. So I needed to find a way to take the whole world's pain." Just for a second Kushina could see the weight that he put on his shoulders by taking up his mission. "After all, how can one stop the cycle of hatred that Jiraiya told me about when I was young? I pondered this question for a long time after Yahiko's death, and it was during this time I found my answer, Pain." Kushina looked worried at Nagato, here he was talking about becoming pain again.
"Why do you hate Jiraiya?" That question actually stopped Nagato in his tracks, here he was about to give her his answer to his master plan and she had to ask that question. "I mean you started your story, but never finished it, from what I heard you still have fond memories of him."
"It is because I must, those days were the most peaceful of our lives. But if you must know after that night where I talked to Jiraiya he baptized us within our own blood, sweat, and tears. We were already young when we started to become shinobi and our chakra systems were that of civilians, it took months, even before we learned how to summon any chakra. And like I said earlier, we trained like this for three years. After he left us, we were lost, although we were shinobi of Ame as we called ourselves we didn't know what to do. It wasn't like we went through the proper channels to become shinobi, Ame itself was in a chaotic mess after the war and there was no official village to call home. So we started our own missions. We helped the homeless around us at first; foraging for food, finding water, and helping them find basic shelters. As we got older we started to defend the nation."
"Defend the nation? What about Hanzō, you never sought him out when you were younger. Surely he would have accepted anybody that claimed to be a shinobi he needed to rebuild a country. From the things I heard in class as a child, Ame took missing-nin from other countries at the time to build their own forces up, of course it was highly frowned upon by other countries, but they did it." They stepped in synchronized silence as they walked down the cobble path streets.
"We were too young to consider that, filled with bright eyes and determination to set a new path we created Akatsuki." Kushina's eyes widened in surprise of his statement.
"Wait, you're telling me the Akatsuki isn't something that was just formed? Were all of the previous members?" By the looks of the place she just came from it would seem as if this group of his was a new thing.
"The answers to your questions are at the conclusion of my story, as I was saying we got older. Indeed, after Hanzō started to invite foreign shinobi into our land hunter-nin and ANBU from all the hidden villages started terrorizing our nation once again. Seeing this we decided to refocus our efforts, we started to forcible eject these people from our homeland. As we did more and more orphan shinobi started to join us, pretty soon we had a couple of dozen people in our organization." Nagato smiled as he remembered the faces of all his old friends that died against Hanzō. "At this point the Akatsuki was a household name in Ame, many knew our organization and the work we did in the country. And so it was that we heard that Hanzō the Salamander wanted to talk, as I recall, everyone in the base was excited when his liaison came to our base."
"You received a summons from Hanzō, just how strong was this previous group." Kushina knew Hanzō was monstrously strong his own right, for him to accept any group they must have been amazing.
"It was not a matter of strength, sure some of the people that joined the group was strong, but most were around Chūnin level. The real level of our strength came from the camaraderie we built, we didn't think of ourselves as teammates; we called each other family. So when we received Hanzō's word the family felt like the child that received respect from their father for the first time. I and Yahiko left immediately, we would have waited for Konan to come with us, but she wasn't due back from her patrol for another day." Nagato paused and sighed, he exhaled a large about of air from his lungs. "It turned out to be a trap, Hanzō felt we were becoming too big and threatened his rule on Ame, once we arrived at his location, we found Konan being held captive by his men with a kunai to her throat. Hanzō demanded that the leader of Akatsuki sign over his life in return for hers." A small chuckle escaped Nagato's lips, the sound wasn't joyful but one full of melancholy and remorse. "Yahiko like the man that he was willing gave up his life, but that wasn't enough to suffice Hanzō's greed. He demanded that my kunai was the one to end his life, I refused naturally. What happened next will haunt me until the day I die, Yahiko threw his kunai into my hand and ran into it. For a second time in my life I blacked-out."
"You blacked-out? That's it, you don't know what happened?" Kushina could see by the look in Nagato's eyes that his story wasn't over just yet. "I refuse to believe that Nagato, don't expect me to drop this either. Now that you've gotten me on this story you must finish it."
Nagato looked at the woman with regret filled eyes. "I am telling the truth when I say that I blacked-out, but there was one other witness." Nagato stopped walking and looked into the sky. "The angel of Ame was there, ask her for the conclusion."
Kushina was about to interject when a whirlwind of paper invaded their airspace. From all around them paper started to circulate, a tornado of sorts was being formed and they were in its eye. Kushina grabbed onto a kunai that popped into existence from the dimension that it was sealed into. Getting ready to go on the offensive she felt a hand on her shoulder and found that Nagato was telling her to stand down. She nodded and felt the winds start to stop. The pieces of paper started to group together and form the outline of a body in front of them. In a final gust of air the woman from before who sat with Nagato during the test appeared in front of them. "Nagato, you've been telling stories again haven't you." The new person looked towards Kushina. "Hello, I'm Konan, I'm sure you've heard about me by now." She said the last part whilst looking at Nagato. Kushina nodded at the newly identified woman. "I hope it was good things."
"Konan, must you always make such extravagant entrances." Nagato looked at her with a content smile.
Konan gave a crowd pleasing smile right back at him. "Well, you know me, the angel of Ame must be extravagant."
Nagato rubbed the back of his head, he was like a caught fish. "So I guessed you heard that then. So would you like to finish the story I started here."
Kushina openly stared at the two of them went back and forth at each other, it surprised her how childish they acted. "Fine I guess, Kushina right?" The redheaded woman nodded. "Let's see where our almighty god was, oh that's right Yahiko's death." The expression on her face changed from the playful demeanor that it once was for a serious one. "The moment Yahiko ran into Nagato's blade they both fainted. I was terrified as a sharpened kunai was against my neck and both of my closest friends looked as if they had died, tears were threatening to cascade out of my eyes when I saw movement. Nagato raised from the ground like a corpse, his body was rigid and eyes were blank. From his body, intense visible waves of charka wafted off of him, I felt the killing intent of his chakra from the plateau I was on yards away. I could feel the terror of every person around me, even Hanzō was shaken by the sudden power Nagato displayed."
Konan shook, she had paused mid story as her mind took her back to the moment she felt the power of the sage of six paths take over one of her dearest friends. Nagato walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's ok." Those words seemed to steel her and she was brought back to reality.
"Nagato's chakra took on the most deadly forms I have ever seen that day, a spectral dragon made purely from the energy that he was releasing descend on the Hanzō's forces. Anything that the charka construct touched died, it was unlike anything I ever saw. I often wondered is this the same fate that happened to the Iwa shinobi from when we were children, and if it was then why Yahiko never said anything about it. So there I was staring face to face with the dragon called by Nagato when it started to inhale my chakra, to my surprise it stopped, I like to think that Nagato had some control of the beast that attacked that day and knew I was an ally. The dragon killed every soul there that day, but left Hanzō alive. I and Nagato made sure that wasn't for long, after we regrouped we found and killed Hanzō." By the time Konan had finished the story the sun had set behind the horizon and produced a smelting color of orange and reds, as the colors reflected off the metals of the buildings of Ame they made the village look like it was consumed in a burring inferno. "But even then it was too late, Hanzō apparently found the rest of Akatsuki and killed them in our absent."
The three of them continued to walk in complete silence for a while. "Can you control it?" Kushina broke the silence as they passed the commons district and entered the clans' districts. "That dragon thing, can you summon it at will."
"No." Nagato's voice was soft, the pain of the memory was evident in his mind. "After Konan related to me what happened that day I tried to use the ability that she told me of, I guess it's one of the many secrets of these eyes that I have. It might be some jutsu produced like the Susanoo of the Mangekyō Sharingan. All I know is that I have yet to master it."
"How do you know of the Susanoo that's one of the Uchihas most kept secrets?" Mikoto had told Kushina of curse of hatred and some of the amazing abilities that it enabled the user to have.
"It seems that you are not the only one to know powerful Uchihas." Nagato replied with a level of clandestine in his voice.
"Nagato, what Uchiha do you know? Most, if not all alive are strictly loyal to Konoha." Kushina was feeling for fūinjutsu on her inner thigh, she was more than ready to strike if he lied to him.
"You do know that you no longer are a part of Konoha and that you don't need to go have any missing-nin they might have." Even with seeing that Kushina was reading to attack Nagato and Konan walked on without a care.
"I know, that's now the reason that I ask. The person who released the Kyūbi from me was an Uchiha, and they said that they knew another Uzumaki. At the time it made no sense to me, but now it's becoming more and more clear." After Kushina revealed that evidence Nagato took a misstep and jumped out the way of a spiked golden chain.
"He had no right to tell you!" Nagato shouted at Kushina over the debris that flew from the spot that he was once in, he saw Konan move to defend him but he raised a hand to tell her to stop. "Kushina I can explain." Quickly he transferred his arm into a shield as a black blade ran up against it.
"Well, you better start talking." She made a cross hand sign and duplicates of her circled around the both of them. "It was because of that Uchiha that I died, and had to seal the Kyūbi into my own child."
Each of the copies release golden chains from their backs, the chains linked in a circle motion creating a large circled barrier. Konan ran up against the barrier trying to force her way in. "Nagato, it's no good I can't get in."
Nagato looked to Konan outside of the barrier she looked worried. "Kushina you know you can't defeat me what's with this display?"
"This display." Said the armed woman jumping back and disengaging in her combatant. "Is for my child." Kushina twirled around in a circle with her arms wide open. "Your Uchiha friend took his birthright from him, and while I may not be able to stop you I can buy time."
"Buy time?" Nagato stood in the middle of the dome-like barrier wondering what the woman meant.
"Call it payback if you wish, while a may not be able to do you tons of harm I can destroy your village." As if on cue one of Kushina's copies released a long flame from her mouth down an empty street charring the ground.
Nagato's eyes went a shade darker as he disappeared from his spot to the one in front of the clone that released the Katon. A black rod appeared in his hand that took the shape of a spear, he charged the weapon into the clone making her scream. Instead of disappearing like a normal shadow clone on taking damage its eyes changed into the rippled pattern of the Rinnegan. "Try that again and I will erase you." The possessed clone broke her chains from the dome and redirected the sharp tips to the others copies formed, the chains pierced each of the clones making them pop out of existence; when the final one popped the possessed one also disappeared.
Kushina swallowed a hard lump of saliva, this was the power of Sage of Six Paths. Not only was he able to talk over one of her clones, he used it to destroy the rest of them; and he did it in only one move. "You said you could explain." At first her voice wavered, but she quickly steeled it in an act of false bravado. She knew that there was nothing she could do to slow him down now, was there that big of a difference in their levels?
Nagato rolled his neck popping a few air pockets between his joints, it was mostly for show. "Open your ears and I'll explain the one who calls himself Uchiha Madara." Kushina stiffen at the name of Madara when he said it, at least he didn't have to explain that to her. "Of course he isn't the real Madara, he knows we know that, but still to be bold enough to use that name he is no weak adversary. The Uchiha came to us during the first version of Akatsuki his ideals were dangerous and Yahiko immediately turned him away. At the time the goal was to fight for Ame and all its glory, protecting it's inhabits from any sort of harm and find a way to break the cycle of hatred Jiraiya taught us about. Yahiko died right before we were able to unite Ame under one banner, but after we got control of Ame I and Konan were lost. Yahiko was the one with all the plans we didn't know how to break this cycle. That's when the Uchiha came back, he said he had a way to break the cycle - through pain. He told us about the Gedo Mazo and its ability to hold the bijū."
"The bijū." Kushina interjected him, what would they need the tailed beast for they were monsters of pure evil.
Nagato nodded his head. "Yes the bijū, with them, we will able to put fear in the hearts of every village into behaving, because Gedo Mazo is a weapon able to release the energy of the bijū to destroy a village in a single go. With this kind of power we will be able to control the flow of war making entire Lands bow at our feet. So you ask what is the real objective of Akatsuki, this is the group's mission - peace through power. No longer will the villages hate each other they will concentrate all their hatred onto Ame and we will be there to protect it."
Kushina listened in complete silence, as Nagato spoke, she kept balling her fist into her hand until blood was drawn. "Where is the Uchiha now? and why, why attack Konoha like he did?"
"I don't know where he is, he comes and goes when he pleases; mostly goes. The last I heard of him was when he came to tell me that the Kyūbi jinchūriki was giving birth, he said that that was the time that the seal was the weakest and he was going to strike. The only other thing he told me was that the jinchūriki was an Uzumaki, I deiced on my own accord to bring you here. I wasn't lying when I said I wanted to rebuild the Uzumaki Clan, you just happen to also be a strong shinobi and I couldn't deny the benefit of having you in the Akatsuki." Kushina scoffed at that, some benefit she would be he destroyed her defenses in seconds. "As for why he attacked Konoha like he did, I can only imagine, after all he is an Uchiha; Konoha should be his home village you should know better his reasons than I." After he finished speaking, he walked over to the violet haired woman and began walking back down the path towards his home. "Are you coming?"
"Nagato." Blood was still dripping from Kushina's balled fist. "What of Naruto? He has a bijū inside of him." Her voice was quiet, barely above a whisper, she was stuck at two cross roads on one hand was Naruto. She would do anything for him, he was her precious baby boy and wouldn't let anyone touch a hair on his head, and extracting a bijū would kill him. On the other hand was Nagato, the Sage of Six Paths. She knew that she stood no chance fighting him, but she would rather die trying that just stand by and let him kill her child.
"I won't kill him if that's what you're wondering." Nagato didn't look back at the woman, instead he decided to continue to walk down the path, not choosing to wait to see how Kushina would react. "You can thank your husband for that."
A/N: Another chapter down :) Left the chapter will a cliffhanger, I think I like to keep people in suspense –even though most people can probably guess why Kushina should thank Minato. The next chapter will be the meeting with the Kyūbi for those of you that remember the first version of this story. Also, we will probably hear about some of the others reasons for being in the Akatsuki. Until next time stay frosty
